Tuesday, 21 November 2017

Thoughts and Quotes on Prayer

I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me.
-C.S. Lewis

Prayer is the raising of the mind to God. We must always remember this. The actual words matter less.
- Pope John XXIII

"Now -- here is my secret:
I tell it to you with an openness of heart I doubt I shall ever achieve again, so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God - that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem capable of giving; to help me to be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond able to love."
-Douglas Coupland - Life After God

"Pray, and pray more. It may seem odd to say that now when you are taking examinations and working harder. But you need prayer, and not only the habitual prayer as an exercise of devotion; you also need to pray during odd moments, to pray between times, instead of allowing your mind to wander on stupidities. It does not matter if, in spite of your effort, you do not manage to concentrate and be recollected. That meditation may be of greater value than the one you made, with all ease, in the oratory."
-Saint Josemaria Escriva - The Furrow 449

"Praying actualizes and deepens our communion with God. Our prayer can and should arise above all from our heart, from our needs, our hopes, our joys, our sufferings, from our shame over sin, and from our gratitude from the good. It can and should be a wholly personal prayer."
-Pope Benedict XVI

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body and prayer is to the soul."
-Matthew Kelly

I believe in the power of prayer. I have seen miracles, some that took time and some immediately. I believe there are only three answers to prayer; yes, no, and not right now. In my own life and the lives of others I know I have seen too often someone stop prayer believing the answer was no, when in fact it was a 'not right now'. I think about the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge. Luke 18:1-8. What if she has not been as persistent, would she have received her judgement?

The older I get, the less answers I have. But the more I trust and the more I pray. At times praying is all I can do, and I do it throughout the day. I have some prayers I try and pray every day. And others I pray from time to time. But I pray. I pray for every friend's birthday that comes up on Facebook. I pray for everyone woman I find out is expecting. I pray for the all the birth and death announcements that come out from our school board. And I pray for my wife and children, my family, my friends. And I pray to become a better man. To become the best version of myself.